with good, when you were dead drops of semen in the loins of your fathers, and He produced you as a fully-formed creation and made you alive, then caused you to die after creating you. For you have known that He who did that by His power is not incapable—by the power with which He did that to you—of bringing you to life after your death] (1) and returning you after your annihilation, and gathering you to Himself to recompense you according to your deeds.

Then our Lord, exalted be His mention, enumerated to them and to their patrons among the Jewish rabbis—whose stories He joined with the stories of the hypocrites in many verses of this Surah, regarding whom He opened His account by saying: "Indeed, those who disbelieve—it is all the same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe"— (2) His blessings that had previously passed from Him to them and to their forefathers, which held great significance for them. Then He stripped many of them of many of those blessings, on account of the sins they committed, the offenses they perpetrated, and their turning from obedience to disobedience, warning them thereby against the hastening of punishment upon them, like that which He hastened upon the predecessors and predecessors before them; and frightening them of the descent of His exemplary punishments upon their quarters, like that which He brought upon those before them; and making known to them what salvation lies for them in returning swiftly to Him and hastening repentance, for their deliverance from punishment on the Day of Resurrection (3).

Then, after enumerating to them the blessings He enumerated in which they were dwelling, He began by mentioning our father and their father Adam, the father of mankind, may God's blessings be upon him, and the honor He had previously shown him and the favors He bestowed upon him, as well as the immediate punishment He brought upon him and his enemy Iblis on account of the disobedience that issued from them both and their opposition to His command which He commanded them. And [He mentioned] His covering Adam with His mercy when he repented and turned back to Him, and His bringing His curse upon Iblis in the present world and preparing for him what He prepared of abiding punishment in the Hereafter, when he grew arrogant and refused to repent and turn back to Him, alerting them to His ruling